This episode is sponsored by Gray Toad Talo, pure and natural nourishment for all skin types.

In this episode of Haunted Cosmos, we discover that Germans are the goats of naming things

and that the reptilian, semi-dragon, cyclopean cryptid being that haunts the woods of Maryland

is the result of people who won't stop fornicating. There are two creatures that come to us out of the lore of the Germanic peoples, the Lindworm and the

drood. These are their stories. First, the Lindworm. At the beginning of the Middle Ages,

the land around the lake, now known as Werthersea in Austria, was remote and wild. To the north

and south were thickly wooded mountains. To the east and west were marsh valleys also covered

by forests of trees. And the darkness of the overwhelming forest was a good indication of what

you might call the soul of the land. For its entire history up to that point, it had only

known the falsehood of paganism. It was a wilderness both physically and spiritually,

a remote region where the very wind seemed shadowy and malevolent much of the time.

The prevailing light during day and night, especially under the canopy of leaves,

came only from oil lamps carried by the odd traveler or rare residence on the edge of that old lake.

Beyond those lamps, it was gray and solemn. Clouds frequented the sky overhead during the day.

At night, the moon's pale silver was less illuminating and more afflicting. It drove the mind mad.

The land in its people sat under this divine malediction for countless years,

and as each year passed, the conditions grew only worse. But then far away on a hill east of

the Mediterranean, a man died on a cross. Following that fateful event, the whole world changed.

Within a few generations, the wild lands of Worthersey,

though still wild and strange, were nearly ready to be brought to order.

Thus was the state of things at the beginning of our tale.

In a less hostile place, the Duchy of Corinthia, a man rose to power. His name was Herman. Upon taking

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